It’s been a month almost and my finger hasn’t felt any better by not knitting and crocheting. So tonight I said, to HECK with it and grabbed up some yarn and a hook. I want to play.
See, at Barnes and Noble the other day, I looked through the knitting and crocheting magazines. Bought a knitting one to glance through. Found the new issue of one I’m subscribed to on the stands. There it is on the left with a picture of a crocheted dress on the cover.
The dress caught my eye, I opened the issue and glanced at it. Then reminded myself I didn’t need to buy it, my issue would come in the mail aaaannnnnyyyyy day now. Of course, I say this remembering that the last issue showed up a good month after it had hit the newstands and a day after I emailed customer service inquiring the normal mail dates.
Two days later, that dress came to mind again. I wonder how it would look on me? I wonder if they sized it for me? I wonder what yarn could be used? I wonder…
So I went out last night and bought the issue. So what if I have two copies of the last three issues. Spares are always good. (Now, of course, mine will come any day now.)
I’m still mulling over the possibility of making the dress for Nationals. The swatching instructions are a bit unclear to me, as there’s no clear definition of the patterns to match up with the gauge instructions unless you just dive in, create the bodice fronts and backs and then start the main pattern. That’s a lot of time investment to find out the gauge is off, if you know what I mean. So I gotta study on that pattern some more.
But there was a cute felted tote bag pattern in the same issue that I studied on the pattern a bit last night and even shopped on line for the brand of wool it used. Then today, when a coworker was using a plastic garbage bag for a briefcase, I thought maybe it would be fun and useful if I made the bag for her.
Never having felted before, I dutifully made up a LARGE swatch tonight (11″ x 11″) and checked gauge (spot on!). The pattern calls for two strands of wool to be held together. As I was half double crocheting and watching the yarn colors meld, I thought of a certain knitter who shall remain nameless, but will recognize the label The Fussy Knitter.
The Fussy Knitter, I thought, would probably insist on matching up the colorways of these two balls of wool as she worked with them. I wondered if that would change the pattern of the variegated wool. Decided it probably would, but wasn’t worth frogging the swatch back for. Even, sigh, made a mental note to match the colorways when I start the tote. Sigh. The Fussy Knitter’s influence is felt even though she’s miles and miles away.
Tomorrow I’ll run the swatch through the washing machine and check to see how much it shrinks and whether I like the look of the wool after felting.
And to think, if The Fussy Knitter hadn’t posted and taught us all about adventures in felting, I might never have gotten the courage to throw $5 of wool in the washer and dryer on purpose to shrink it. Amazing.
